Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

(Should be characters rather than words.) Very impressive; I wonder if future versions will eventually even exceed the speed of speech or typing.


This artifical interactive knowledge entity wants access to your attention and emotional state. Think "Accept" to allow permanent access [*]. Think "More info" to instantly know our privacy policy.

This is fine.

[*] We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own.


In the same way that irreversible actions on legacy keyboard systems are confirmed by typing in a series of words, MentalKeyboard will require you to think of a complex thought.

Delete all funds from your bank account? To confirm, think of a polka-dotted elephant. Otherwise, just think of anything else.


I'm not sure if you did it on purpose, but when I read:

> To confirm, think of a polka-dotted elephant.

I immediately though: How does a polka-dotted elephant look like???

I guess my bank account is blank now :( .


This would pose a different kind of problem for people with aphantasia.


"I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood, something that could never, ever possibly destroy us: Mr. Stay-Puft."


You would want to offer a specific something else for the user's executive function to latch onto immediately, even if you continue to interpret anything other than the narrow confirmation pattern as "cancel", just so there isn't only one immediate, recent attractor for "think of something".


thatwasthejoke


To confirm, think of a $thing continuously for 10 seconds


> To confirm, think of a polka-dotted elephant.

You monster! :D


Resistance Is Futile


You're reminding me of the augmented 16 fingered prosthetic hands from Ghost in The Shell, much safer than connecting your cyberbrain to a random computer system.

I imagine a future version of this technology would move beyond converting mental keystrokes into input and instead work on more abstract ideas. Imagine if your IDE could auto-generate certain design patterns as you think about them, instead of forcing you to manually type them out.


Yes I just came to put an addendum on for characters not words. But as you said very very impressive. This could massively improve patient’s quality of life by being able to communicate much quicker


I think so and it probably will require some skills to fully utilize it where kids in the future will start learning to use it from the early age.

I image this is how I probably will become 'obsolete' in regards of technology just like my parent can't catch up with todays technology.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: